No Guts, No Glory
by xxCoffin96xx
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Alessa McGarner lived a normal life of a teenager; had a best friend, went to school, had big plans for her future, and loved her mother (even though she could get on her nerves). But everything changed when the outbreak happened. Thrown into a world she had to face on her own, she never thought finding a group of survivors would change her life. (Daryl/OC)
1. Introduction

_Hello there, you lovely people. I am here once again with another story. As for my other story, Scud's Pixie, I have not forgotten about it or gave it up. I am just at the moment a bit stuck as to how I want to continue it. But I will have another update for it up pretty soon, and hopefully can continue it. Possibly when my school and work schedule is not so crazy. As for this story, The Walking Dead is one of my all times favorite television show. And I have seen stories where the original character got with either Rick, Carl, Daryl, Glenn or even Shane. Sometimes I see where they paired them with Maggie, Michonne, Andrea or even Beth. And I love all of them, anything Walking Dead related I am 100% on board for it. Anyways, back to what I was saying, I've read all these love interest stories and I thought about doing something a tad bit different than that._

 _This story is based around the main character, which is my original character Alessa. My goal for this story is for it to be a tad bit different, and hopefully it can continue having your attention and interest. If it doesn't keep either one of them, that is all right with me. I am not going to force and of you to read through my stories if you do not want to._ _ ***creeps up behind you all with duct tape and a computer chair***_

 _Well, enough of be rambling on about honestly nothing in particular, and on to the story. I hope you all like it. And also, feel free to leave comments. I love looking at you lovelies feedback. :3_

 _ **Chapter One: Introduction**_

Alessa knew their supplies would run out sooner or later.

The young girl sat on the floor with her back pressed to the wall, her knees hugged tightly to her chest. Her chin rested between the space of her knees, looking over what her mother, who stood by the front window of the building they were hiding out in, looking carefully out it. With one hand she was using to push the curtains out of the way to look outside while the other held a grey handgun, which was dropped by a poor fool that tried to take on a swarm of the creatures outside.

Atlanta was supposed to be a safe place for the people that were left unaffected by the sudden virus outbreak that swept across the United Sates, causing a worldwide pandemic. This virus was not like anything anyone had experienced before. It spread quickly, infecting thousands, showing no remorse to the innocent lives it was destroying in its path. From watching firsthand what could happen once a person was infected, the symptoms were frightening but extremely odd in a way.

From the first hour of the infection, the person would have pain and discoloration around their wound. Within the fifth hour the person will develop of fever that could range from 99 degrees Fahrenheit to 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Along with the fever, the person will also experience the chills, slight dementia, acute pain in their joints, and have excessive vomiting. Hour eight is where the fever escalates from between 103 degrees to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Also within hour eight of being infected the person will experience an increase of their dementia, having numbing of extremties, numbing of the infected area, and a loss of muscular coordination. During the eleventh hour paralyzation of the lower body will commence, causing overall numbness of the body, and the person's heartrate will slow. By the time the sixteenth hour occurs, the infected goes into a coma. Once hour twenty is reached, the heart stops completely and there is no longer any brain activity. The twenty-third hour is the one to fear. During this hour, reanimation happens.

Everything happened so fast; one minute she was a normal fifteen-year-old girl, coming home from school with plans of spending the weekend over at her best friend Rhion Sullivan's house, and the next she is thrown into a new dangerous world.

While back at her hometown, piling extra pairs of clothing into her backpack, knowing she was about to leave everything she ever knew behind, Alessa had a gut feeling that something was not right with the refugee camp stationed in the city of Atlanta. But she decided to keep her mouth closed tight, and keep her opinion of the camp to herself, for the sake of her mother, whom had all the faith for the both of them that this so called camp would keep them safe until whatever it was happening around them was over, and that the Military would not fail them.

Before all forms of radio signals were cut off, the radio inside her mother's car kept repeating the same message over and over. One part was to keep far away from the infected, that they should no let them touch or any shape of form, if you decided to not leave your homes keep everything locked up, and all outside request to get in were expected to be denied. Alessa did not like the fact the rule was the same with friends or family. The radio also announced the whereabouts of the refugee camp and what a person would expect on arriving.

It was stated that when survivors arrived at the camp they would be lead to a place where they would be given a vaccine to fight off against whatever the virus was. You would have your own tents to do as you please while waiting for the situation to be blown over. Protection, food and water would also be provided. Even though food and water was said to be provided, Alessa rolled her eyes when her mother packed extra food and water in their bags along with the few articles of clothing they already had stuff inside of them.

At first before seeing what this unknown virus could do with her own eyes, Alessa believed that people in the world had finally gone crazy. Possibly even crazier than what they were before, seeing as how they added cannibalism to their act. Watching a bit of the news before her mother would turn it, never being one to be interested in what was going on through it, the young girl would always see glimpses of a video inside this isolated room. It would always be a person growling like an animal, their body wrapped tightly in what appeared to be a straightjacket, while running back and forth into the walls of the small room. What would always shock in the small time see saw it was when the lunatic would break free from the straight jacket, throwing themselves harder against the walls of the small room, finally having security come into to stop them before they got hurt. It would always end with the person attacking the security, the said security would be screaming for help as the crazy person started scratching at them or taking bites at them, and then her mother changed the channel to something she thought was more suitable for her to watch.

These people weren't people. They were these hollow shells of who they once were, replaced with something that brought them back as beast who craved nothing but warm flesh. It was hard to believe, and Alessa still did not want to believe it, but these people were the living undead. Zombies if you must say, even though the young girl did not like that term for them. She had much rather use the term she made up, which was simply "Freaks."

Her mother preferred to use a nicer term for the undead creatures walking among them. Whereas Alessa called them Freaks, Isabella referred to the creatures as "The Unluckies."

The two of them had been trapped inside the city of Atlanta for weeks now, hiding out in what was originally a post office. Alessa's gut feeling was something she wished she never had on her and her mother finally arriving to the city.

Everything was in ruins; bodies of the dead and undead littered the streets, the tall sky scrapper like buildings were left in destruction (it look as if someone had dropped bombs on the whole city), cars were left abandoned, and there were no signs of any type of camp ever being there. It was just them and the dead.

Somehow by the Grace and the protection of God, or whomever it was looking out for people nowadays, both Alessa and her mother made it towards the post office without the creatures getting to them. After making it inside the run down building, the duo made sure every part of it was secure and the dead outside could not find a way inside.

Now after weeks of being able to not see them, but hear them groaning and shuffling outside, they would have to venture out of the safety of their hideout to face the dangers of the outside world once more to look for more supplies. Alessa regretted taking the last bit of their food supply, a single cup of pineapples that could have been shared between both her and her mother. Yet Isabella told her daughter to go on and eat it, and that she would be fine. She mentioned that Alessa's needs came before her very own, even during the outbreak happening around them.

Isabella kept watching through the window as the creatures shuffled along until she could see no more surrounding the street in front of the post office. She assumed it was safe for both her and Alessa to venture out and begin their search for more needed supplies. Letting the window curtain fall from her hand the thirty-eight-year-old turned back to look over at her daughter, seeing the blue-eyed girl already staring at her.

The older brunette knew this was frightening for her young daughter, it was even frightening her own self. Even if fear was great inside her, Isabella knew they needed more supplies to survive. Because they would try to leave the city one day, and when that day happened, they would need as much supplies as they could get. Looking down at the grey handgun she held in her hand, Isabella checked the chamber to see if she had enough bullets if they were needed to be used. After checking and being pleased with the ammo she had, the older brunette closed the chamber back before clicking the safety off.

Isabella looked towards her daughter once more, offering a soft mom smile in hopes of getting a smile in return, but was only met with the blank stare that Alessa had developed over the course of the weeks they had been holed up in the post office building. Sighing a little bit, the mother walked across the floor to reach her daughter, and crouching down to be at eye level with her daughter while placing her gun on the floor beside her.

"Are you ready to go, baby girl?" Isabella asked her daughter softly, reaching an arm out to push some Alessa's long, brown hair behind her ears.

She could lie and tell her mother that she was, and a few thousands of Freaks were a piece of cake to handle, but her nerves were far greater than her trying to be tough for her mother. Shaking her slightly while looking down at the floor, Alessa only replied with, "No."

"Hey, come on, I'm not going to let them anywhere near you." Alessa believed her mother, but every bad possible outcome was running through her head at 90 miles an hour with no intentions of stopping. "It'll be an in-and-out thing. We go through a few stores to find some food and water, then we come straight back here."

"How can you be so sure they won't be there waiting for us?" Alessa questioned while looking up from the floor, staring into her mother's brown eyes. That was the one thing that the young brunette found amusing on both her and her mother's appearance. Both shared the long, brown hair that came from the McGarner side alone with the very fair colored skin, the slight plump lips with an elegant facial structure. The only thing they did not share was eye color. Alessa had blue eyes while her mother had brown eyes. The young girl could only assume the color of her eyes came from the father she had never known side of the gene pool. Even though she might have not liked where she had gotten her blue eyes, she would never complain too much about them. Alessa found blue eyes to be beautiful, perfect even.

Isabella knew her daughter had a point, but she could not let her daughter see the fear she felt. "Because they'll have to face me, baby girl," the older brunette picked her gun up from the floor, raising to her feet again while clicking the safety of the gun back on, getting into a stance where one of her hips were sticking out, a hand placed on it while her arm was stretched out, seeming like she was aiming the gun at someone. "Isabella McGarner, known throughout the whole state of Georgia as Isabella the Gun. I can shoot an empty bucket from miles away without even batting an eye, and my sharpshooting skills is something to be acknowledge with."

Alessa raised an eyebrow towards her mother's statement. "Isabella the Gun? Mom, you've never even held a gun before now."

Isabella lowered her gun and returned to a normal standing stance, looking down at her daughter with a smirk. "You don't know what your mother did in her youth. I could have been the most notorious outlaw around."

"And yet you were never caught?"

"When you're good, you're good. Who is to say that Isabella McGarner is not my real name, and it is a name I made up as an alias so the Five-O wouldn't be on my tail."

"Well, for starters, if your name was not Isabella McGarner, mother dearest, you would not be known throughtout the state of Georgia for your so called sharpshooting skills as Isabella the Gun. And also, if any of what you are saying is true, you would not be taking half credit for Quigley Down Under."

"Oh."

Alessa could not help herself as a laugh escape past her lips at the look of embarrassed and disappointment that spread across her mother's face. She could have let her mother had her moment, but in some way Alessa was pretty sure her mother set this whole conversation up in her head to ease the nervousness she felt about going on the supply run. And she swore she saw her mother's facial expression change quickly into a smile spreading across her lips as she turned around to face the door, hiding her face away from her own daughter.

"If you're done laughing at my misfortunes, I believe we should start looking for some supplies while we still can. Storm clouds are moving in slowly but surely. Looks like Georgia is about to grace us with more rain."

During the hot summers it was not unlikely for Georgia to have random rainstorms here and there, try to cool things off, but only ended up making the humidity even worse than it already was.

Nodding her head slightly, Alessa rose to her full height while picking her backpack off from the floor where it laid beside her. Taking a deep breath before letting it out, she walked across the floor to meet her mother by the door. They each worked together to push the heavy vending machine from in front of it. Isabella had the idea to use it as a way to block the door so the creatures outside could not get to them on the inside.

Once the vending machine was finally, and noiseingly, pushed out of the way towards the door the mother and daughter duo stood side by side. Alessa grabbed hold of her mother's free hand and squeezed it tightly, feeling a sense of relief when her mother squeezed back. Isabella nodded her head towards the door to silently tell her daughter to open the door, to which Alessa nodded back fully understanding what her mother wanted her to do. The young brunette reached towards the doorknob, a slight shiver ran down her spine feeling the coolness of the metal against her warm palm before turning it slightly, and finally pulling it towards her.

Alessa and Isabella both had to squint their eyes slightly when the harsh sunlight shined into them, but after a few seconds they could unsquint them and see with no problems at all. Isabella was the first to step out through the now opened door, stopping for a bit to double check to see if the coast was clear. After debating that it was, she began walking forward, having Alessa follow closely behind her.

Nothing had changed in the weeks they had been inside the post office, everything was still the same. The only difference was possibly the amount of the Freaks that had wondered into the city, trying to find their next meals.

It was fairly easy, a little bit too easy as Alessa and her mother ventured in the giant city of Atlanta. They had made it into two stores, finding nothing in one but finding a few water bottles in the other. Isabella had said once they found a bit more water, along with finding food that they actually needed, they would make their way back towards the post office. The plan seemed like it was fool proof, but then again, the refugee camp was supposed to be something of fool proof as, too.

After searching around for a while, thinking there was no dangers close by, the duo rounded a single corner leading towards another street, they stopped in their tracks seeing a swarm of the creatures they feared bundled up together on one street. It only took one of the Freaks turning around and spotting them before the rest of them spotted them, having the mother and daughter duo break out into quick run, having the creatures chase after them. The more they ran, the more of the creatures came out from hidden places in the city.

The minute they reached the street their hideout was on, Alessa was in front of her mother as they ran towards the post office. Only when her mother's sudden scream of fear caused the young girl to stop and turn around, only to scream out for her mother seeing one of those things holding on to her, biting deeply into her shoulder.

"Mom!" Alessa exclaimed while running towards her mother as the Freak began pulling the piece of Isabella's shoulder, causing the older brunette to scream out in agony and pain.

The younger brunette took hold of her mother's hand, gripping on to it tightly, pulling with all her might in hopes to snatch her mother away from the beast that was attempting to make her its next meal. While trying with all her might to pull her mother away from the Freak, she was unaware of the approaching danger that was making its way towards her.

With all the fight she still had inside of her, Isabella managed to snatch her hand away from her daughter to place it in the center of her chest, pushing hard to shove her daughter to the ground as another undead creature charged its way towards her instead, latching on to the other side of the poor older brunette. It too sunk its teeth deeply into her flesh, this time closer to her neck. She screamed once more in agony and pain, her screams louder than the ones of her terror filled daughter calling out for her. Isabella's own blood poured from her wounds as the creatures continued to feast on her.

Alessa got to her feet and attempting to make her way back towards her mother, but stop as Isabella instructed her to run. With a quivering bottom lip, the young girl on the edge of tears, shook her head. "No, mom-"

"Now, Alessa!" Isabella exclaimed loudly through another pain filled scream. "Run!"

With tears finally falling from her eyes and down her cheeks, Alessa started making her way back towards the post office, only stopping to snatch her mother's drop handgun off of the ground before following her mother's orders and was running for her life.

Never looking back, no matter how much she wanted to turn back around to try and help her mother, she didn't. She continued running the rest of the way towards the post office, weaving her way around the Freaks that tried to grab at her, finally making it to the post office and running back inside, slamming the front door shut. She turned the locks that were already on the door before quickly running towards the vending machine, pushing on it with all her might to push it back in front of the door. After a few attempts, she finally had it back in its original place.

Alessa back away from the door to where she stood in the center of the floor, stumbling a bit as she allowed the heavy weight of the grey handgun drop to the tiled floor before falling down to it her own self, curling herself into a tight ball as uncontrollable sobs shook her whole body. And the feeling of hopelessness washed over her.

The young girl soon started wondering about only one question: how was she going to make it in a world like this on her own?


	2. Glenn Rhee

_Fifteen-year-old Alessa McGarner sat in the passenger seat of her mother's Mustang as they drove down another street, looking out the window as the passing houses until they reached one in particular. Her Aunt Karen's._

 _The young blue-eyed girl looked at the white painted house, taking notice at how it looked freshly done. Her aunt decided to move into an older house, always wanting to have enough room in case she found herself married with children in the future._

 _Thing was her aunt was not married nor did she have any children._

 _Alessa found it a bit sad at how her aunt had enough room in the world inside her home for a husband and few children, but the way her mother put it Aunt Karen was not the easiest person to spend a long period of time with. To which she did have to agree on some extent._

 _Karen lived with them a few years back while she was in school to become the nurse she was today, and her boyfriend at the time kicked her out of the house she previously lived in with him. That was also before Karen came to her senses and left him for good._

 _His name was Ethan? Yes, Ethan. Ethan Grier._

 _Last time either three heart of Ethan he was surviving life in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend, her boyfriend at the time and their unborn child._

 _There was part of the young girl that hoped one day her aunt found the right guy to settle down with and have on down the road a few little ones._

 _After fifteen years of being the only child, Alessa found it boring. Of course she at her best friend Rhion, but she always wanted to know what it felt like having cousins like most children in her grade._

 _Knowing what it is like to have cousins, maybe even siblings, and knowing how it felt to have a father around. But that was a different story for a different time._

" _Why are we visiting Aunt Karen again?" Alessa curiously asked her mother as they pulled into her aunt's driveway. The young girl turned away from looking out of the window at her aunt's house to look towards her mother._

" _Because she called and asked would the both of us like to come over to visit." Isabella answered her daughter with a smile while turning the car completely off, turning her head to see her precious blue-eyed baby girl staring at her with an eyebrow raised. "And also because she made her famous chocolate cheesecake. Your favorite."_

 _Alessa chuckled slightly before turning her head to look away from her mother, unbuckling her seatbelt. "I swear the only reason I was so chubby as a child was because Aunt Karen and that cheesecake."_

" _And that one time when you were three, when you managed to slide one of the kitchen table chairs towards the counter where she had the cake, and carefully climb down from the chair to hide underneath the table to devour the entire thing by yourself."_

" _I couldn't help it, mother dearest," Alessa said while opening her door. She stepped out of the car as her mother did the same. Both rounded the front of the Mustang and began heading towards Karen's front porch. "It was my favorite."_

 _Isabella let out a laugh as she and her daughter both made their way on to her baby sister's front porch, knocking on the door before pressing the doorbell. It was a few minutes later did Karen open the front door, a smile wide across her face._

 _Karen and Isabella were five years apart. They shared no similarities in their features since they had two different fathers. Isabella had the dark brown hair and brown eyes from the McGarner side of the family as to where Karen had her auburn hair and green eyes from the Bentley side._

" _Hey." Karen greeted with her smile still on her face, hugging her older sister before pulling her niece into a tight hug. She pressed her lips to the top of the teenager's head before pulling away, cupping the side of the young girl's head. She stared into those perfect blue eyes with her green ones, her smile never falling. "Hey there, my precious blue eyes."_

 _That was always something Karen called Alessa. It started from the moment everyone was certain her eyes weren't going to change colors, and that they would remain blue._

" _Hey, Aunt Karen." Alessa smiled at her aunt as Karen removed her hands from the sides of her face. That was when the young girl noticed the bandages wrapped around her aunt's wrist. "What happened to your wrist?"_

" _Oh…" Isabella looked to where her daughter was, her eyes growing wide with shock. Karen picked her hand up and inspected her wrist, turning it over slightly before shrugging her shoulders. "Some patient bit me today before I could pull my arm away."_

" _A patient bit you?" Isabella questioned worriedly, following Karen into the house as the green-eyed women backed up from the door to allow her and Alessa inside. Alessa closed the door behind them, keeping her back turned to the grown women, listening on. "Did someone at least look at it afterwards? Do not tell me you patched your own self up."_

" _No, Izzy, I didn't." Karen replied to her sister, giggling a bit at the expression on her sister's face. "Jonathan looked at it for me. He washed it carefully, put some disinfectant on it so it would not get infected, and then bandaged up my wrist."_

 _Jonathan McDaniel was one of the many doctors at the hospital. A very close friend of Karen. They went to school together back in the day._

 _Dr. McDaniel was happily married for three years going on four, and had a little McDaniel on the way._

" _Why did the patient bite you anyways, Karrie?" Isabella questioned as she and her sister walked towards the kitchen, leaving Alessa in the living room._

 _Karen shrugged her shoulders. "I do not know, Izzy. He was a mentally ill patient. Jonathan believed he could have probably suffered from some psychosis relapse. I mean, I guess if you're getting picked and pricked in every different direction, you would want to take your anger out on something or someone. Unfortunately, I was the one thing he took his anger out on."_

" _But you're fine, right?"_

" _Yes, Izzy. I'm fine. I am completely all right."_

The truth of the matter is that Karen was not all right after all.

A few months later, she was the first person Alessa watch suffer from the infection and then reanimate into one of those… _things_.

The patient was not only mentally ill; he was one of the first people to be infected with the virus that plagued everyone now. If only the signs were noticeable at the very beginning…maybe lives would be spared.

Her _mother's_ life could have been spared.

Three days had pasted since the fifteen-year-old watched those creatures attack her mother, eating the very flesh of her body in front of the young girl. Alessa knew she would never forget the screams her mother let out every time the two creatures bit into her, tearing chunks away from her. They were filled with horrible pain.

Alessa wished her mother would have let the Freak that was approaching her from behind just attack her, do the same to her as the other one was doing to Isabella. They both could have either died together or they could have turned together.

Yet here she was, sitting with her back pressed firmly against the wall near the window, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. Her blue eyes were staring vacantly at the floor, eyes rimmed red from the tears she had cried for the past three days. Her mother's handgun laid beside her on the floor on her right, and on her left was her bag.

Many times in the last seventy-two hours did the idea of picking up the handgun, placing it underneath her chin and pulling the trigger to end it all cross her mind. And when she picked the gun up to carry out with her idea, the gun would grow even more heavier inside her hand, she would have to place it back down on the floor beside her.

The young girl knew she was not meant to live in a world like this on her own. She was _not_ strong enough for it.

Alessa wanted her mother, wanted her Aunt Karen, and she even wanted Rhion. Out of everything that had happened, not knowing where her best friend was killed her even more inside.

She wondered daily was she safe? Did she and her family even make it out of their hometown safely? Was she looking for her and her mother? If they found out Atlanta was no safer than where they were before, where did they try to move on to next?

All unanswered questions she wanted someone to answer for her.

For all she knew her best friend and her family were dead, too.

The vision played in her head vividly, something she wish it did not do.

Olivia Sullivan she could see being the first one to go before her children and husband. Olivia was not much of a fighter. She was a fragile woman, her heaviest weight she ever reached was with baby Thomas. That was no more than three pounds over 150 pounds. Though she could have put up a fight to protect her children, Alessa knew she would be the first one the freaks would go for first.

Next she could see David Sullivan going next. His anger would probably get the best of him, watching the undead eat his beloved wife alive. David was not a violent man, Alessa could count on one hand only the amount of times she saw furious about something. It was no more than four times, and two of the times were directed towards Rhion. He was a giant of a man, tall in structure, but was a loving man. For the longest time Alessa believed he had no bone inside of him that held the emotion of anger inside of him, until she saw him become furious over something. That was long ago, and the blue-eyed girl had forgotten the reason behind what caused him to become so.

Watching his wife be taken away in front of him would set him, having him leave his children and run full force into the horde of the undead with nothing but his pistol. He would use all the bullets trying to get to Olivia, only to end up dooming himself as the creatures would swarm around him. He would be eaten alive just as his wife, only because of how he left his children out in the open, a few of the creatures would see them and go after them.

Alessa could see Rhion picking up little Thomas, who would be five now seeing as his birthday was yesterday, and running quickly as she could to find the both of them a safe place to hide from the swarm. The ebony-haired girl would run as fast as her legs would allow, panting heavily while keeping her baby brother help tightly on her hip, having her hand resting securely behind his head, tangled slightly in his curly gingered hair while his chubby cheeked face was hidden in the crook of his sister's neck so he could not see the monsters anymore.

Rhion would hid both she and Thomas behind an oak tree, hoping the width of the tree would be enough to shield them from the creatures behind them. She would sit on the ground, Thomas sitting sideways in her lap as she held him tightly, breathing heavily while Thomas held tightly on to his sister while he still kept his face hidden.

The oak tree would not shield them from the dangers long.

Thomas would go first, seeing as how small he was, no matter how tightly Rhion held on to him, the creatures would prove to be a lot stronger than she and snatch the poor boy out of her grip, devouring him alive in front of her as the ones that piled up against her would start devouring her alive as well, both Rhion and Thomas's pain-filled screams would echo out.

No one would hear them. That would be the end of it.

They all would be gone.

Mentally cursing herself for even thinking of such a scenario, Alessa smacked the heels of her hands against her forehead, muttering at how stupid she was for it. She knew Rhion and her family.

If their parents did not make it, she knew Rhion would. And she also knew Rhion would do _anything_ she could to make sure no danger came near Thomas.

Unlike her, Alessa was for certain that Rhion was made for a world like this.

Rhion was stronger than she was.

Alessa was all alone. And she was certain she would stay alone.

Sighing a little bit, the brunette released her legs before crossing them Indian style while grabbing her bag, placing it in front of her on the floor. She unzipped it before tilting it towards her some, reaching inside to dig around for another protein bar that she and her mother had picked up from three days ago, raising an eyebrow as something metal feeling touched her fingertips.

The young girl grabbed on to whatever the metal object was before pulling it out, feeling her eyes water once again seeing what it was.

Her mother's treasured locket.

Alessa held the necklace in her hand before pressing the small button on the side, having the pendant open to look at the picture on the inside.

It was a small picture placed perfectly inside of her and her mother, all smiles in their outdoors photoshoot taken by the local photographer in town. Alessa was no more than four in this picture, and she knew that by how her hair was.

Isabella had once told a tell at how Alessa grew tired of how long her hair was, and so she took it upon her little self to grab some of her safety scissors to cut her hair until it was an uneven mess that stopped a little above her shoulders.

Alessa could only see the consequences of her actions once her mother saw how her usual mid-back length dark brown hair was now unevenly chopped off mess a bit above her shoulders.

Blinking some and taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly, Alessa closed the locket back up before unclipping it and placing it around her neck, clipping it back. The slight weight of the locket felt right, made the young girl have a sense of relief that she still had something of her mother with her.

But it could never replace the real thing.

Alessa finally found what she was previously looking for, unwrapping the bar and started eating it in the silence of the post office.

Hours had passed since finding the locket; everything was silent. A bit too silent for her liking.

Usually she could be able to hear a couple of groans, maybe some of them shuffling around. But nothing. It was just silence.

Although that was until an odd clapping sound from outside caught her attention, having her ears perk up at the sound. Whatever it was, it echoed throughout the silent city.

Moving to sit on her knees, Alessa moved the curtain out from in front of the window to see what was actually causing the clapping sound. Her eyes widen in shock for bit on seeing the cause of the clapping noise.

There walking into the city in the middle of the day was a horse. An actual real life horse. The rider of the horse caused Alessa to raise an eyebrow some, curious of how on Earth he could casually stroll into a devastated city like nothing on horseback.

The rider on the horse was a man. And by the attire he wore, Alessa knew he was in law enforcement. Sheriff, maybe.

The closer both policeman (Alessa believed since she did not actually know his rank in law enforcement, she would just refer to him a police man) and horse got closer, the young girl could see the policeman held a duffel bag of guns on his back. A lot of guns.

Alessa continued watching as the policeman and horse went along on their way until she could no longer see either anymore.

Alessa let go of the curtain and backed away from the window.

She soon began to think on what she had just seen. A horse and a policeman.

A living, breathing horse and a living, breathing policeman was in the city same as her.

Of course she could not help but feel as if the policeman was an idiot for being out in the open with a horse, strolling through the city of Atlanta the way he was doing.

Who even did that?

Did he not know they were in the middle of the apocalypse?

Turning her attention to look at the vending machine, she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and began chewing on it slightly.

Alessa began to think; if she stayed inside the post office, she would die with no food or water and if she were to step outside of the post office she would possibly die one day because of the creatures outside.

At least she knew now there was another living person inside the city with her, but did not know just for how long he would be there. He could make it out with no problem or he and the horse both could be eaten alive by the freaks.

Closing her eyes tightly, Alessa gripped the pendant of her mother's locket with her right hand tightly, thinking on what her mother would want her to do.

 _Live_. She would want her to live.

Releasing the locket and letting the pendant hit against her chest, Alessa bent at her waist to pick her backpack up from the floor and placing it on her back before picking her mother's handgun off the floor as well. The blue-eyed girl made sure to check the chamber like she would watch her mother do, and made sure it was on safety before placing it in the waistband of her leggings.

The young girl used all her strength to push against the vending machine until she had the heavy object out from in front of the post office door. Looking at the dully painted white door, Alessa shoved all her fears back down as she gripped on to the doorknob and turned it, pulling the door towards her to reveal the outside world to her. Nothing had changed in the past three days.

Alessa leaned out the doorframe left and right to make sure the coast was clear, and making her move to follow the policeman on horseback when she saw that it was. She stayed on the sidewalk, crouching behind cars much as she could just in case the policeman turned his horse around to leave so she could make herself known.

The pathway she followed the policeman on horseback along the sidewalk lead to another street, one she would make sure to avoid if her mother had survived the way back to the hideout three days ago, and if they had to get more supplies. It was the street where they came face to face with the horde that chased after them. Although in the midst of it all, she had never noticed the giant tank sitting parked in the center of the road.

A shiver went down her spine as she noticed a body of a dead solider was flung across the cannon part, a black bird pecking at the dead skin of the body and eating it.

The sudden and panicked filled whinny of the horse caused Alessa to tear her stare away from the dead body and the tank to her left, feeling as her heart began to speed up inside her chest, eyes growing wide seeing the policeman and the horse galloping towards her, a horde bigger than the one three days ago following quickly behind.

" _Shit!"_ Alessa cursed to herself as she began to turn around, deciding to run back to the post office. She began running quickly and let out a scream when she felt a hand wrap around her forearm, yanking her harshly towards the left into an alleyway.

Doing what she knew best to do for her at the moment, she began punching and slapping at whatever had a hold of her. If she was going to go down, at least she would know she would go down with a fight.

"Ow! Ow! Hey! I'm on your side! I'm not dead!"

Hearing the sudden male voice Alessa stopped her hits, turning her attention on whomever it was the voice belong to.

It was a man, a bit older in her, probably in his early twenties. It did not take her long to see he was of Asian descent, possibly Korean. He wore a simple t-shirt, blue jeans, converse shoes, and what appeared to be a baseball cap on top of his head, covering black hair.

"You—you're alive." Alessa was in shock. Here she stood in front of yet another living, breathing person.

"Yeah, I'm alive." The unknown man said slowly as he released his grip from around the young brunette-haired girls' forearm. "You okay?"

Alessa nodded her head. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"You're welcome." A sudden noise from the street caused both Alessa and the unknown Korean man turn their attention towards it, moving close enough to see what was going on. Both were in shock seeing half of the horde of the undead surrounding the horse, feasting upon it as the policeman was crawling underneath the tank with the rest following him, soon gunshots began going off until it all went silent once more. "Shit." Alessa heard the unknown man curse before feeling him grip on to her forearm once more, pulling her along with him. "Come on, we got to get out of here."

"What?" Alessa questioned freeing herself and stepping back from the man that saved her from being spotted. The man turned to look at her. "You've got to be kidding me."

"It's not safe here. I need to get the both of us out of here. Look, I have a few members of my group waiting for me back at— "

"What about the cop?"

"There isn't anything we can do for him." The Korean man said, glancing towards the tank before looking back at the blue-eyed girl in front of him. "He's on his own."

"We can't just leave him there." Alessa pressed on, staring sternly at the man in front of her.

"Look, we haven't heard any more shots. For all we know the man could be— "

The man cut his own self off by looking at the tank once more, his mouth hanging open some in shock seeing as the crazy asshole was actually all right. He stood looking out around him the lookout station of the tank, only to close the opening once again as the creatures began climbing up on the tank to get to him.

"See," Alessa began having the man look back at her. "He's still alive."

"Yeah, okay, he's still alive," the man said while gripping the girl's arm slightly, moving them away from the open gate, closing it carefully as he did so. He let go of Alessa's arm once more, staring at her. "But we have no possible way of helping him. No communication, no— "

"Tanks have CB radios in them, I remember from school." Alessa interrupted the man once more. She noticed attached to his belt was a radio. "You have a radio. You can find the signal to the tank and communicate with the cop in the tank. We _can_ help him. Do you want to have his blood on your hands? _Our_ hands? We leave now without attempting to help him, the both of us will have to deal with this for the rest of our lives if he does die. We will both have to live with knowing we could have helped but didn't."

The unknown man looked at the young girl before looking over at the scene on the street once more, watching as some of the creatures on top of the tank until there was only one climbing down from the tank, joining the others from around the horse to feast on it.

Going against his better judgment in getting back to his group that was waiting on him, he sighed before nodding his head. "Okay. We'll help him. But we need to be high off the ground though to attempt to get a good signal with this radio I have."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Alessa question, following behind the Korean man quickly as he started sprinting down the alleyway.

"There's a fire escape ladder down here," the Korean man explained as they continued sprinting. They reached it and he stepped to the side, showing he was going to let her be the first one to go up it first. "We'll use it to climb up to the building to get a signal to the tank." He turned to her and gestured with the hand not holding on to the yellow metal towards the ladder. "Ladies first."

Alessa nodded and walked towards the ladder, gripping on to two poles above her head and started to climb upwards, only to stop when the man that saved her said something. She stopped halfway from pulling herself up even more on the ladder to look at him, raising an eyebrow some. "Yes?"

"What's your name?"

"My name is Alessa McGarner," the brunette-haired girl answered. "What about you?"

The Korean man smiled some, adjusting the baseball cap on top of his head.

"Glenn Rhee."


	3. Welcome to the Big City

_I already had this update written last night along with the last one. Thank you all so much for the favorites and comments so far. You are all so amazing!_

"Hey, Dixon! Dixon, are you crazy?!"

That was the first thing Morales exclaimed as he and the other six people behind all piled out of the door leading to the department building's roof.

Glenn and Alessa had managed to rescue the policeman from the tank-well, _Glenn_ had managed to rescue the policeman from the tank. The policeman's name was Rick Grimes.

The Korean man lead both Rick and Alessa across a few building tops before climbing down a ladder into one of the buildings, quickly finding the fire escape stairwell. All three soon found themselves face to face with three freaks in the alleyway. Rick and Glenn both called them "Walkers."

If Alessa was concerned Walkers had a much better ring to it than Freaks did.

Two men in makeshift riot gear ran quickly out of a building with bats in their hands, running straight towards two of the walkers and began beating them with it. With the men doing so it gave Rick, Glenn, and Alessa enough time to race towards the open door the men flew out of, the two men quickly followed behind slamming the door shut behind them.

All three of them weren't in the small room for no more than a few minutes when Andrea, some blonde haired women in Glenn's group shoved Rick against the wall harshly while holding him at gunpoint. Morales, and Hispanic man that was one of the riot gear men along with T-Dog, a young black man of the group.

Alessa noticed Jacqui last, the other women of the group, a beautiful older black woman, as Morales roughly shoved Rick down a hallway as everyone followed, explaining the reason as to why they were in the city of Atlanta in the first place. It was also shown they weren't too happy with Rick shooting his gun.

After entering the store part of the department building, loud gunshot echoed sure enough to be drawing in more walkers if that was even possible.

Dixon was an older looking man, possibly in his late forties or early fifties, and was oddly muscular for his age. His hair looked as if it was greying a bit, but it was hard to tell with the way it was buzzed and his skin was slightly burned from the sun. He wore a pair of blue jeans, combat boots that were dirt covered, and a blue jean jacket that covered the black singlet he was wearing.

Alessa looked on with everyone else as the man continued shooting down towards the walkers below with his rifle from where he stood on the edge of the building, ignoring the protest from the members of his group that called out to him. Dixon soon started chuckling as he turned around slightly, holding his rifle tightly in his hand.

"Hey, you ought to be more polite with a man holding a gun." Dixon explained with a smirk as he jumped down from the ledge and on to the roof top. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got, man!" T-Dog angrily exclaimed while jumping down from the platform he stood with the others to get close to Dixon, Morales following closely behind. Everyone else scattered around the roof top, Alessa choosing to stay put on the platform. T-Dog only continued with his rant. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill."

"Hey, bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm going to take orders from you? No way, bro. That'll be the day."

"That'll be the day? You got something you want to say to me?"

"Hey, T-Dog, man, just leave it. All right? It ain't worth it." Morales told his friend trying to calm down the tension that just grew between the two men. The Hispanic man turned towards Dixon. "Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"You want to know the day?" Merle questioned with a smug smirk on his face, stepping a bit closer towards T-Dog with his rifle held tight in his hands. He ignored everything Morales was just saying to him, showing he more rather get a rise out of his group member.

"Yeah." T-Dog answered while stepping up as well, his harden expression never leaving his face.

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. "Yo." It's the day I take orders from a nigger."

"Mother— "

T-Dog did not get to finish his saying as he swung at Merle, only to be knocked hardly down to the ground by the butt of Merle's rifle. Morales began to call out to the man as Merle began violently punching T-Dog in the face, holding tightly on to the front of his Brooklyn t-shirt so the man could not get out of his grip. Andrea, Jacqui and Glenn joined Morales down on the roof top pleading with the brute of a man to stop his assault on their friend.

Rick, being the cop he was, acted out of habit. He moved down off of the platform to pull the men apart, only to be sent to the ground hard by Merle punching him in the side of the face. Alessa watched the scene as Merle started attacking T-Dog once more. He kicked T-Dog in the stomach, sending the young man down and banging the side of his head on metal pipes. Merle sat on top of the poor man, continuing to punch him, holding on to the front of T-Dog's t-shirt so he could not get away.

Alessa moved from her spot on the platform and jumped down, flinging herself on the mad man in attempts to get him off of T-Dog. It only back fired on her when he roughly shoved her off of him, knocking her back into Morales that came to aid his friend. They both stumbled back before falling down.

As they got up from where they fell to the ground, everyone stopped in their tracks as Merle pulled out a grey handgun. Alessa felt around her waistband, her eyes growing wide as she felt her mother's gun was no longer there. Somehow when Merle shoved her back, he had managed to grab the gun as well.

Merle held the gun at T-Dog's face as he looked around towards the people surrounding him. Andrea was pleading to him to harm T-Dog anymore, and the others shared the same expression on their faces.

Looking down at the man underneath him he never lost his stern gaze before spitting on T-Dog's t-shirt, slamming his hand down on his chest while rubbing the spit around before getting up off of the beaten man. Andrea, Jacqui, and Glenn acted fast to pull their friend away from the mad man of their group. Morales and Alessa joined them.

"All right, looks like we're having ourselves a little pow wow." Merle announced while still holding the handgun in his hand. "Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else?" He raised his free hand while looking at the few people of his group. "Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's seem 'em." Morales was the first one to raise his hand, causing Andrea to protest.

Andrea soon raised her hand just as Glenn and Jacqui, leaving Alessa to be the only one to not raise her hand. "Come on. How about you, Little Bit?" Merle turned his attention towards the young brunette that sat on her knees beside Glenn. "What's it going to be?"

Looking to the people around her, seeing the facial expressions they were giving her, a certain kind of silent plead for her to just give into what Merle was wanting from all of them. With a sigh Alessa raised her hand, staring at Merle with a harden expression. "Good, good. That means I'm the boss. Hmm? Anybody else?"

"Yeah."

Merle turned around at the voice behind him, only to be struck to the ground by the butt of his own rifle as Rick used it to send the brute known as Merle Dixon to the ground. Rick acted quickly with pulling out a pair of handcuffs, latching one on to Merle's wrist before latching the other part to a piece of metal sticking off of the pipe behind them.

The curly-haired man picked Merle up by the shoulder part of his blue jean jacket, slamming the man against the pipe roughly. On being asked who did he think he was, Rick referred to himself as Officer Friendly. Rick turned to his side to see the dropped handgun laying on the ground and picked it up, picking it up to check the chamber before closing it again. Looking up at Alessa he handed the gun out towards the young girl, who took it with no questions. She made sure the safety was back on once again before placing it the waistband of her leggings.

"Look here, Merle. Things are different now." Rick began to tell the handcuffed man. "There are no niggers anymore. And no dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, no apart."

"Screw you, man." Was Merle's only response as he turned his head to stare at Rick. His response seemed to irritate Rick even more.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

Not knowing what came over her, Alessa pulled the handgun from her waistband and took the safety off before placing it towards Merle's head. "You ought to act more polite when there's someone with a gun around. Only common sense."

"Screw your kid, too." Merle said not even bothering to look at the young girl holding him at gunpoint. He continued to stare at Rick. "You won't do it, kid. Man in front of me is a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anyone that gets in the way of that is going to lose." Rick told Merle sternly. He looked up some towards Alessa before looking back at Merle. "And that kid you said that can screw off is not my daughter. I am not in any position to stop her from ending you if you cause any more problems. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Merle said nothing else as Rick gave Alessa a look to tell her to tell to put the gun away. She did, placing the safety on before putting it in the waistband of her leggings once again. Rick began patting Merle down, soon digging into a pocket on his blue jean jacket to pull out a small container that held some kind of white substance inside of it. Rick titled Merle's head up before letting it drop back down, flicking the man in his nose before standing to his feet. "Still got some on your nose there."

Merle was making jokes as Rick was walking off, but soon began yelling at how Rick should better pray for when he gets free for throwing his drugs over the edge of the department building. Alessa followed Rick as he walked towards one half of the roof, both standing there in silence when Morales came to join them.

"You're not Atlanta P.D. where you from?" Morales questioned looking at Rick.

"Up the road a way." Rick answered looking at the Hispanic man. Morales nodded before leaning over some to look over at the young brunette beside him. "And what about you, Alessa? If you're his daughter."

"A little way out." Alessa answered as Rick turned to look at her as well. "I'm from Hapeville."

Morales chuckled some before all three of them turned to look out to the city again, seeing the thousands of walkers littering the streets. Thunder rumbled overhead.

"Well, Officer Friendly from up the road a way, and Alessa from Hapeville, welcome to the big city."


	4. Word to the Wise

Alessa found herself sitting in the back of the cube van with T-Dog, Jacqui, and Andrea. Rick and Morales sitting up front. Glenn, who had while accompanying Rick on an idea to use walker guts as a cover up to walk amongst them through the city, had found himself a sports car. He drove ahead of them all, the alarm system blaring loudly as he sped in direction of the survivors' camp.

Jacqui sat beside T-Dog, who was slouched over some while leaning back against the wall of the van, using a rag she had pulled out of her bag and damped it with some water to softly pat against the young, muscular man's face. Andrea sat opposite of them, her knees pulled up to her chest as she hugged them tightly, and the young blue-eyed girl knew she was excited to get back to her sister. Amy, Alessa believed her name was. Andrea talked their ears off enough about her, surely she should be sure of the sister she has yet to meet.

Rick and Morales were talking amongst themselves, mentioning how no one would be sadden about Merle not making it back with them. Everyone expect his brother. Daryl, the young girl caught the younger Dixon brother's name.

On hearing the two grown men talk about Merle Dixon the way he was, and how his brother had been hunting prior to them departing on their scavenging adventure to the city, she could not help but feel awful about how they had left him.

After the second glass door of the department store finally gave out, having all the walkers from the outside pile in, everyone readied to take action for the plan Rick had to get them out of the city. When they saw the van with Rick driving approaching the back of the department store quickly, everyone began running towards the stairway leading back into the store, everyone but two.

T-Dog and Alessa.

Merle was pleading for the two of them not to leave him. Alessa, who could not bear to be the reason for anyone to die by her hand, kept trying to persuade T-Dog into releasing the man, seeing has he was the one still holding the handcuff key. Finally, the muscular man gave in and began racing towards Merle Dixon, only to trip and loose grip on the key.

The small metal key fell into a hole on the roof, causing Alessa to sprint towards it, surprising herself as she tried to stick her hand down the pipe-like hole to see if she could grab the key and pull it out. She could not. The hole was longer than she had expected.

T-Dog grabbed the young girl while repeating his apologies towards Merle as he and Alessa raced towards the stairwell, T-Dog stopping to padlock the door so the approaching walkers could not get to him so easily.

Merle Dixon was still up on that roof; left like he was some caged animal. And knowing the status if he was alive or not was not what she needed to be weighed on her head right now.

And wondering just how Merle's brother Daryl would react was yet another thing she did not want to have in her head.

Looking back towards Rick, Alessa only wondered how he was holding up.

The former sheriff had entered Atlanta in hopes of finding his wife and son, but only ended up having to be lead towards a group of survivors he did not know.

No wife and son.

Alessa could only think he thought he might have failed them, or maybe they weren't even alive anymore.

Closing her eyes and leaning back against the wall of the van, the young girl closed her eyes and allowed the movements of the ride to lull her to a short sleep.

* * *

Jacqui was the one to wake her minutes later, explaining to the young girl how they were finally had the camp. The older women started walking towards the opening of the van as Alessa got up to her feet and grabbed her bag, throwing it over her shoulder and walking towards the opening herself as Jacqui jumped down.

Alessa did not move to jump down right away, she took in her surroundings.

The camp was cozy; other survivors were out ad about doing chores and some were looking on at the two sentimental scenes in front of them. One was Andrea embracing a younger blonde, which Alessa could assume was her sister Amy while Rick was in an embrace with a dark brown hair women and a brown-haired boy, possibly three years younger than she was. The blue-eyed girl took noticed that they must have been Rick's long, lost wife and son. Finally reunited. All of them.

A lump formed in her throat watching the scenes before her, knowing she would no longer share that type of embrace with a loved one.

"Hello there." A welcoming sounding, elderly man said bringing the young girl out of her thoughts. She tore her gaze away from the embracing loved ones to stare in front of her, seeing an elderly man possibly in his late seventies standing there. He had a white beard with a warm smile, wearing an outfit that made the young girl believe he could have been out somewhere fishing when the outbreak started. "Who might you be?"

"Alessa." The young girl answered, looking at the elderly man's hand as he offered it to her. She placed her hand in his as he helped her to jump down from the cubed van. "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome, dear." The elderly man smiled. "I guess seeing as how you introduced yourself to me, I might as well do the same. I'm Dale."

There was something about the elderly man Alessa liked. He had this grandfatherly way about him. Which if she was concerned about it, she enjoyed a lot. Growing up it was only her, her mother and her aunt. Her grandmother and grandfather had died when she was only one so she did not get to be extremely close with them like most children did.

Alessa said nothing else, only smiled as Dale wrapped his arm around her shoulders and began to lead her more into camp. Dale took it upon himself to become somewhat of the welcoming committee for the young girl. He introduced her to Morales' family, Jim, to Shane Walsh, Lori and Carl (Rick's wife and son), and the Ed Peletier family.

Sophia and Carol were sweet and caring, Alessa could see herself being very close to them. Ed on the other hand was someone Alessa could have dealt without ever meeting. Something about him just did not seem right with her.

Later on that day when night had fallen, a few members had gone to sleep in their tents as a selective few stayed awake, sitting around a warm campfire.

Alessa sat close to Glenn, leaning her head on his shoulder, surprised that he did not mind at all. Amy and Andrea sat close to together, T-Dog and Morales sat beside one another as Jacqui sat a bit close to Rick and his friend, which was close to Dale as well.

Rick had started telling the story of how it was for him to wake up in the hospital from his coma-like state that had been brought on him by a gunshot wound on call, telling everyone around him how it felt and what it was like to see the new world around him first hand. Shane and Lori as well made comments here and there, so did young Carl.

Shane had excused himself from the group for a bit to scold Ed for putting more than the needed amount of wood in his fire, only ending with the lard of a man angrily ordering Carol to remove the burning log from the fire. The muscular, tan skinned man came back a minute later and took his sit on the lawn chair once more. He raised his head some and focused his attention on the young girl laying her head on Glenn's shoulder.

"What's your story, kid?" Shane questioned the young girl, rubbing the back of his neck after realizing how that came out. "Sorry, wrong way of wording that."

"Long as you call me Alessa and not kid anymore, Shane, we're perfectly fine." Alessa told the tan skinned man, a small smile playing on her lips and earning one in return. She raised up from laying her head against Glenn's shoulder and took a slight breath before continuing. "Well, I'm fifteen. Probably look a whole lot younger—I always get that. But, um, I am an only child and when all of this started my mother and I came to the city in hopes of it being safe like how the news presented it out to be…and you can see how that ended up. So, now I am here with all of you, sitting around this nice campfire."

"Where's your mom?" Carl innocently questioned the brunette-haired girl.

Alessa looked down at the ground towards her feet before answering, "she…she didn't make it."

"Oh, my," Jacqui said while holding her hand over her mouth a little bit before placing the same hand on her upper chest. "I am so sorry, baby girl."

"No, it's all right." Alessa shook her head while looking towards the older women, soon laying her head back down on Glenn's shoulder. "At least she doesn't have to go on in this world anymore."

"What about your father?" Andrea questioned softly, not wanting to push the young girl on such a personal matter as what she was going through. She knew how it felt, only a small bit though. She and Amy did not know the status of their mother and father.

"I never knew him." The young girl answered with a light shrug. "For all I know, he could possibly be one of those walking corpses or alive right now. If he is…I would not be able to single him out amongst a whole crowd of people."

No one said anything else, believing it was better to have a bit of peace before anyone decided to answer once more. Dale was the one who spoke next, asking a question no one was ready to answer.

"Have anyone of you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be too happy to hear that his brother had been left behind."

"I'll tell him." T-Dog spoke up bravely, having everyone turn their attention on him. "I dropped the key. It's on me."

"I was there with you." Alessa butted in right after. "So, it is only fair that the both of us tell him together."

"I cuffed him, that makes it mine." Rick interjected.

Glenn sighed. "It's not a competition." He looked sideways towards the girl laying her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, you were with T-Dog when the key got dropped, but you've never dealt with Daryl before. Better if you let one of us handle it along with Rick." The Korean man turned his attention to look between Rick and T-Dog. "I had to bring race into this, but I think it would sound a whole lot better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did. I'm not gonna hide from it." T-Dog remarked.

"We could lie." Amy suggested, only causing Andrea to shake her head.

"Or we tell the truth; Merle was out of control and something had to be done or he would have gotten us all killed." Andrea spoke right after, soon turning to look over towards Lori. "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale questioned with a frown, slightly shocked by what Andrea said. "I don't see any rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

T-Dog shook his head some. "I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it."

Andrea furrowed her eyebrows looking at her friend. "We were all scared, we all ran. What's your point?"

"I know his point." Everyone turned their attention on Alessa once more. "While running back to meet up with you all so we could load the van and make it back here, T-Dog stopped long enough to chain the staircase door."

"She's right." T-Dog nodded his head. "The stair cause is narrow, maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against that at one time, it's not enough to break through that—not that chain, not that padlock."

Soon after finishing his sentence, T-Dog got up from where he sat and began walking in the direction of the tents, possibly going to turn in for the night.

Everyone soon followed after, Alessa being lead towards the RV with Dale, Andrea and Amy. Inside the vehicle Andrea found an extra mattress to lay on the ground of the RV, an extra pillow and blanket for the young teenager.

Laying down on the mattress Alessa looked up at the ceiling mulling over everything that had happened up until this point. Letting out a sigh, the young girl turned over on her left side and curled into a slight ball as her eyes grew heavy, blinking a bit before finally falling asleep.


	5. Daryl Dixon

The next morning once Alessa had woken up alone in the RV, she grabbed her bag and made her way into the small washroom of the vehicle. She lowered the lip on the commode and placed her bag on it, unzipping it before turning her attention to look in the mirror hanging above the sink.

She could barely even recognize herself.

Dirt and grim covered her face, her dark brown hair was greasy looking from where she had sweated so much due to the hot Georgia sun and how she ran her hand through it as a nervous habit. Her once bright, blue eyes seemed so dull of the life they once had.

After what she has witness and what she had to go through, also knowing others around were possibly going through the same if they have not already.

Letting out a sigh Alessa turn both of the spokes of the faucet so the water would be neither cold or hot, she picked up the yellow bar of soap on the edge of the sink before placing her hands underneath the running water, lathering her hands in hopes of getting the filth off.

When she had cleaned her hands enough as she could, she began splashing the water on her face, and started to scrub off what possibly could. After finishing she looked into the mirror once more, smiling a tiny bit seeing how she had scrubbed away most of the filth that was on her face. She only wished her hair could have been easier to fix than the dirt and grim.

Reaching into her bag she began searching through it, pulling out some fresh clothes, some undergarments, and thankfully enough a black hair bow and band to somewhat fix the mess that her hair had become. Stripping off what she wore previously, Alessa redressed and threw her hair into a messy like bun on top of her head, using the black hairband to hold back any stray hair that might try to get out of place, and she soon felt a bit better knowing that she could change her clothes without worry and know she no longer looked wild to those around her—or partially wild.

She began to stuff her old clothing back inside of her bag but a knock on the washroom door stopped her, causing the young girl to ask who it was for a timid voice to come through the other side and show it was Carol.

Alessa opened the door slowly to peek over the corner to see the older, greyish haired woman standing there. She had a soft like smile looking at the young brunette-haired girl in front of her.

"I knew there were a set of beautiful eyes underneath that long hair covering them." Carol said sweetly with her soft smile still on her face. "I didn't get a chance to really greet you the other day, just Dale introducing us and my husband having both my daughter and I follow him away from everyone back to our tent. I'm sorry about the scene last night near the campfire. Ed can get a little— "

"Don't worry about it." Alessa said cutting Carol off, "and it's nice to meet you."

Carol saw how awkward the young girl in front her possibly felt. She was surrounded by people she would have never had anything to do with if the world had not decided to seemingly end. "I heard what you said about your mother last night, too, Alessa." The older women said to the young girl, and call it the motherly part of her acting out of instinct when the sudden saddened expression sketched over the blue-eyed girl's face that her heart ached for her, feeling remorse for what the girl had witness before stumbling upon Glenn and the others. She only continued, bending down some so she could look easier into Alessa's eyes when the girl lowered her head some. "I am so sorry for what went through, and I know you're probably still going through it. But you need to know if you need to talk to anyone, Dale or I will be there as much as we can for you. Even Glenn, seeing as how you seemed to have grown fond of him."

"I know," Alessa said softy while raising her head to look into Carol's eye. "Thanks."

Carol smiled as Alessa gave her a soft one, opening her mouth to speak once more, but stopped as she and the young girl looked at the entrance of the RV to see Sophia standing there, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Her dirty blonde hair was pushed back by a hairband.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"I was just wondering was it okay if I played with Carl, mama."

Carol raised up to stand at full height, still keeping an eye on her daughter. "Did you both finish your chores?"

"Yes, ma'am." Sophia said while nodded her head, letting her brown eyes travel over to look at Alessa shortly before looking at her mother once more.

"And did Lori say it was all right?" Carol questioned. Again Sophia nodded. "Well, then I don't see a problem with it. You two just be careful, understand?"

"Yes, mama." Sophia began to turn around to leave out of the RV so she could join her good friend but stopped before stepping through the entrance down the small steps. She turned to look at the brunette-haired girl that was probably three years older than her. "Would you like to come play with us, too?"

"Oh, I, um…" Alessa began as she looked down at the dirty clothes she still held in her hands. She looked back up towards the young girl. "I would like to, Sophia, but I have these clothes and— "

"I'll wash those for you," Carol said cutting Alessa off this time while taking the clothes from the young girl with a smile. "I had to do laundry today anyways." The older women nodded towards her daughter. "Now, go on and have some fun. Just the three of you be careful and stay close to the camp, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Alessa nodded her head while walking towards the young Peletier girl, taken back a bit when Sophia took hold of her hand and lead the both of them out of the RV.

Carl, Sophia, and Alessa walked through the woods. They stayed close towards the camp as both Lori and Carol had said, making sure to not go any farther than to where neither child could no longer see Jacqui. Yet, that was until Carl wanted to explore more into the woods, despite the pleas of both Sophia and Alessa.

The young Grimes boy got what he wanted.

Carl lead the way the two girls followed behind him, Sophia staying close to Alessa and keeping a tight hand on her hand. Alessa did the same to the young girl.

Jacqui was long gone from their view as they ventured more into the woods, finding nothing a particular interest, and so the children began to wander back towards the camp after what could have been a good hour and a half of their exploring the woods, playing a few games here and there, and getting to know one another better. In the short amount of time, it was aware the children had become the greatest of friends.

As the reached where they were nearing the camp once more, still seeing Jacqui as she hung up some clothes while taking a few dry ones down, they stopped when they heard a strange noise from beside them.

"What was that?" Sophia asked in worry, moving to stand behind Alessa.

"I don't know." Alessa answered the cowering girl behind her. She reached with a free hand and placed it on Carl's shoulder, attempting to turn the boy back around to face the way towards the camp. "We should just ignore it and go back to the camp."

"No way." Carl said while shaking off Alessa's hand from his shoulder, jogging towards where the sound came from.

Alessa tried calling out to the young boy, but he only ignored her. Rolling her eyes at how she was ever so happy she never had a younger brother, she looked at Sophia and told the young girl to stay close and not let go of her hand as she leads the both of them behind Carl, walking quickly so both could catch up to the energetic boy.

They continued following him until they made it towards an opening in the woods, all three stopping in their tracks at what they saw in front of them. There stood a deer, grazing on the grass and the few dried fallen leaves on the ground. It was clear neither of the three children had ever saw a deer up close, but something was not right with it.

Close towards its backside there were three arrows hanging loosely, one looking as if it was about to fall out on its own. She told both Carl and Sophia to stay where they were as she inched towards the creature, softly telling it that everything would fine and she meant no harm. She may have not ever seen a deer up close, but she knew they were dangerous. And an already injured deer if it felt threatened enough, it could possibly turn uglier than she wanted.

Though she probably spoke too soon.

Another sound was heard a head of her, causing the young brunette-haired girl to look up only to see the creature neither she nor any of the members of the survivor group would want to see.

A Walker.

The creatures began approaching the deer and the children, growling inhumanly with hunger. Alessa stepped back to be with Sophia and Carl. All three children looked on in horror as the walker grabbed hold of the deer, sinking its teeth into the poor unrexpecting animal before it could run away.

Carl and Sophia both gave out loud screams of terror that echoed throughout the woods, knowing that the members of the group could hear them. Alessa instructed the two to run quickly and she began to follow behind them, only to trip on a log that was hidden by the fallen leaves. The both children she was with far ahead of her, calling out towards their mothers.

By the time she stood back up, hands grabbed hold of her shoulders, causing her to scream out in terror as the inhuman growls were in her ears. Thrashing around to break free from the creature she feared more, she managed to pull away from the creature's hold and shove it back harshly.

When she shoved it back footsteps could be heard approaching quickly towards where the young girl and the beast. Alessa watched as Rick, Shane, Morales, Dale, Jim, and Glenn raced past her with different blunt objects in their hands. The walker turned its attention off of the young girl and on to the grown men surrounding it. It growled and started making its way towards Rick.

Rick stared at the approaching beast before raising the bat he held tightly in his hands, and striking the creature first. He soon set off a kind of chain reaction between him, Shane, Morales, Jim, and Glenn as they beat the beast to the ground. Alessa stepped back some more as Dale stepped in and raised the axe he held in his hands, bringing it down hard on the walker's neck, severing the head from its body.

Alessa turned around to see a few of the group had come to be on lookers of the sigh in the clearing, also seeing Andrea and Amy both standing close to the scene. She wondered why the sisters decided to inch closer to the clearing, neither one looked as if they should be around something like this.

Maybe just Amy.

"That's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain."

Alessa turned her attention back to the men watching as they looked at the now beheaded walker.

"They're running out of food in the city." Jim said the attention turned on him, leaning against the shovel he had brought to take care of the walker. "That's what it is."

It was quiet between the few in the clearing until rustling was heard in the woods beside them, followed by loud snapping of twigs. The men once again grew alert and Alessa did not move from her spot. Shane raised the shotgun he brought along with him in the direction of where the rustling and twig snapping was coming from.

Everyone seemed to hold their breaths as they waited for whatever it was to appear. Alessa, half expected a walker to emerge from behind the bushes, gave out a sigh of relief when a living man did. He appeared to be in his early forties, possibly still in his late thirties. He had short, sandy brown hair and a small bit of facial hair. He wore a t-shirt that she could only assume he ripped the sleeves out of, a pair of dirty greyish-green jeans, and boots. In his hand he held a crossbow.

"Oh, Jesus."

Alessa watched as Shane placed his gun down, and everyone but Rick looked at each other. The young girl could only believe that knew this mysterious new man. And then it dawned on her.

This was _Daryl_.

"Son of a bitch! That's my deer!"

Those were the first few words to come angrily out of the man's mouth as he made his way more into the clearing. He walked closer until he was at the deer, and it soon clicked to the young brunette-haired girl that the arrows belong to him. Which would explain his crossbow.

"Look at it all gnawed on," Daryl continued before turning his attention on the walker, his face hardening even more if that was possible and began kicking at the headless body out of pure anger. "By this disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!"

"Calm down, son. That's not going to help." Dale said calmly trying to ease the younger Dixon's temper, but only seemed to make it worse as Daryl started to storm towards him.

"What do you know about it, old man?" Alessa moved from her spot then and quickly stepped between Dale and the younger Dixon brother. Shane used his shotgun to separate Daryl from both Dale and Alessa. The angry Dixon brother looked at the former cop before looking down at the first person to come between him and the old man. He was taken back a bit to see it was a young girl, probably fifteen or sixteen standing there. Even though she was trying to act brave standing in front of him, thinking that she could protect Dale, he could tell she was nervous and scared of him. Hell, he could not blame her. Though there was something oddly familiar with her, Daryl just couldn't place his finger on it. Shaking that away he looked back at the older man of the group, pointing a finger towards him. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to _On Golden Pond_." He turned away and made his way towards the deer, gathering up his arrows. "I was tracking this deer for miles. I was gonna bring it back to came, cook us up some venison." He turned to look at Shane when a sudden question popped into his head. "What do you think? Think we could cut around on this gnawed on part?"

"Gross…" Alessa spoke without thinking, not believing he would even consider asking a question like that.

"The girl's right." Shane spoke. "Would not want to risk that."

"Damn shame." Daryl sighed a bit before standing full height after collecting his arrows, adjusting the rope of squirrels Alessa had failed to notice at first. "Oh well, got us some squirrels. At least a dozen or so. It'll have to do."

The young brunette girl went to step up some, deciding she would rather want to join the others in camp and see how her newly found friends were doing, but she jumped back with a slight squeal of shock as the walker head beside her suddenly came back to life, groaning and snapping in her direction.

She felt embarrassed at the fact that she squealed at the bodiless head of the walker Dale beheaded. It could not grab her, it could not chase after her, and for goodness sakes it could not even bite at her—only snap. But here she stood around everyone, squealing because a head came back to life and started snapping at her.

Amy left when it happened, sorry the very sight had sickened her and Andrea followed after her sister, doing her duties to make sure she was okay.

"Come on people, what the hell?" Daryl said as he stepped up, aiming his crossbow at the walker head and shooting, having his arrow pierce it through the eye socket. She was not expecting it and Alessa stumbled over as the arrow pierced through the walker's eye, watching from laying on her elbows. "It's got to be the brain," the younger Dixon brother continued to rant, not seeming bothered by how he caused the young girl of the group to stumble over the way she did, as he collected the arrow he shot the walker with, shaking off the bit of walker's blood before looking over in the direction of Rick, yet another new person he had never seen before. "Don't ya'll know nothing?"

Those were the last words he said as he started walking back towards the camp, calling out for his brother, and having the others follow quickly behind him. Glenn had made his way over towards Alessa, helping her up from the ground and helping her dust all the dirt off of her.

"You good?" Glenn asked her. Alessa nodded.

"Yeah, I'm good." She looked in the direction that everyone had left. "So that was Daryl, huh? He doesn't seem so bad."

"He isn't Merle; I'll give him that. But he does have a temper." The Korean man explained to the young girl. He placed his hand on her back, pushing her forward so the both of them could head back towards the camp. "Come on, I have a feeling this is not going to end well."

Alessa nodded; she and Glenn jogged towards the camp. If Daryl's temper was anything like Merle's…she was not looking forward to how Rick or Shane would deliver the devastating news to him.


End file.
